Great ride today! Probably the last long ride before the Giro delle Dolomiti in two weeks time.
First up were the Lacets de Montvernier. You'll see these in this year's Tour de France. Amazing: 27 hairpins crawling up a cliff face, with a church on the top and a little village. Put in a solid effort up the climb (about 13 mins) - it was like the hardest fair ground ride in the world. There are ways to get photos of the whole thing from the top but I wasn't prepared to ride across a field and lean over the cliff for the blog :)
From the Lacets is a beautiful ride up and over the Col du Chaussy. Through the tree cover, up and the forest line, passing a smiling french lady sitting with her car - 'Allez!' she shouted,
'Vous vous moquer de moi!' I replied, but it turns out she was waiting for her husband behind me on the climb.
Over the Col du Chaussy I turned right towards the Lac du Loup (Wolf's Lake) - the views were great, the roads quiet and I thought I was onto a good thing as I passed a woman doing yoga by a lake. As I progressed further up the climb I got some strange looks from the cows and all of a sudden the bitumen disappeared and I was onto gravel.
I assume for a big part of the year this track would be under ski fields but today it was just rocks and fine dust. As you might expect, tmy 23mm Michelin Pro 4 Service Course racing tyres were not ideal in the sand, but I only had to get off and walk twice. It was a serious grind up the 10% slopes on some pretty horrible roads. Maybe about 7km of gravel. (Checking the tyres afterwards it's lucky I brought a spare - the side walls are pretty shredded! But the tread is fine)
After what seemed like an age I was finally rewarded with the last 2km of the Col de la Madeleine climb. It's 9% but on bitumen - it felt so easy compared to the gravel. Got to the top, checked out the view of Mont Blanc, scoffed some hot chips and spoke to some Aussies.
Again, it's fantastic to be able to speak enough proper French to get by.
Is the Col de la Madeleine one of the best descents anywhere? I'm not sure, but the Alpine descents are amazing. The feeling of the 30+ degrees heat down in the valley was stifling and made for a long, hot drag uphill back home.
Barbecue to follow, with a swim in the pool. Ahh.
 |
| View from the valley floor, the Saint Jean de Maurienne main square. |
 |
| Looking up to the Lacets de Montvernier. |
 |
| All along today's ride, the villages are gearing up for Le Tour's arrival next week. |
 |
| Hmm... where's the road gone? |
 |
| Looking back - gravel grinding has its rewards. |
 |
| Not so good for the tyres. |
 |
| Still on the gravel road - ski slopes! |
 |
| At the top of the Madeleine (Mont Blanc in the distance) |
No comments:
Post a Comment